Sustainable Fashion Can Talk the Talk, but Can it Walk the Walk?

by Katie McKenzie

Panel at Sustainable Fashion Week

London, Milan, Paris, and New York hosted extravagant fashion weeks across the month of September, bringing thousands of classic names as well as up-and-coming brands to the catwalk. This year, there was a lot of talk about sustainability, particularly in New York with the organiser, the Council of Fashion Designers of America, pledging to be net zero by 2050. New York Fashion Week squeezed in sustainability panels between shows, and a few designers displayed truly sustainable designs.

Jacques Agbobly of Black Boy Knits, who debuted at New York Fashion Week, is a trailblazer when it comes to limiting waste, with his waste from knitting over the past 2 years fitting into a "14 x 19 Ziploc bag." Luxury fashion brand Coach, under creative director Stuart Vevers, presented elements of circularity in their runway show with old footballs and leather jackets reworked into new pieces.  

Yet, at the same time New York Fashion Week displayed a focus on sustainability in the fashion industry, the reality TV star Kourtney Kardashian announced that she was the new sustainability ambassador for fast-fashion brand Boohoo. Two capsule collections were featured at Boohoo's show, featuring pieces made from recycled fibres as well as some vintage pieces that will be available to rent as part of the collection. Huge backlash has emerged, over significant greenwashing claims and the absurdity of appointing a sustainability ambassador who knows nothing about sustainability. The stunt was another attempt to distract fashion week goers and society at large from the harm ultra-fast fashion companies like Boohoo and others have on both people and planet. The collection itself may ‘extend the lifecycle’ of clothing, but it is no excuse for Boohoo’s extremely unsustainable business model. Human rights scandals have shaped Boohoo’s brand ever since the Leicester factory scandal in 2020, in which it was revealed that workers were being paid below minimum wage and working in dangerous conditions. 

Boohoo Fashion Show

Although there is a lot of talk about sustainability, fundamentally, fashion weeks are unsustainable. With a typical New York Fashion Week supposedly emitting up to 48,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, they are yet another part of the second largest polluting industry in the world. Fashion weeks present the glamorous side of the industry, whilst disguising the truth that many of the clothes exhibited harm both people and the planet in their production processes.  

Meanwhile, in the UK, the first ever Sustainable Fashion Week was hosted in Bristol, coinciding with London Fashion Week. SFW aimed to challenge everything wrong with the likes of New York, Milan, Paris, and London Fashion Week and included a catwalk show, workshops, and talks all promoting the “rewear, repurpose, regenerate and reconnect” ethos of Sustainable Fashion Week. Clothing swaps, repair demonstrations and a Junk Kouture exhibition were a few highlights, along with the show that featured established brands such as Lucy & Yak, as well as university students displaying the future of fashion.  

With fashion weeks talking about sustainability, at least the industry is beginning to recognise the harm it does and the importance of the future of the planet. However, whilst there’s a lot of talk, the Boohoo example shows that a genuine consideration of sustainability is not yet appearing on most catwalks. Sustainable Fashion Week’s efforts are challenging the industry’s harmful ways, but there should be no need for a ‘Sustainable’ Fashion Week – every fashion week should be sustainable.